Mill Valley parks commission reviews priority projects

Mill Valley officials are considering improvements at city playgrounds and two parks this year.

At its meeting on Wednesday, the Parks and Recreation Commission unanimously approved the city’s priority projects plan. The list includes three major focus areas: safe and inclusive playground infrastructure; the development of a Boyle Park master plan; and reviewing plans for Bayfront Park.

“We always want to be really ambitious about priority projects, but on the flip side of that we want to make sure we’re not biting off more than we can chew and we want to do a good job on the things that I looked at and that the rest of the commission look at to be priorities,” said Vanessa Justice, the commission chair.

Ashley Howe, the city’s recreation director, said the biggest priority for the city is completing the Boyle Park master plan. Groups have been meeting monthly since September to talk about the project, improvement wishlists and potential conflicts.

City staffers are drafting a request for proposals for consulting services to help with the community engagement aspect of the plan.

Justice said Boyle Park is a community asset for its range of offerings, but because it gets a lot of use, it needs a lot of maintenance and improvements.

“Boyle Park is one of our crown jewel parks,” Justice said. “It’s super important that we think of Boyle Park as a whole and that we create a master plan to make sure that we’re updating it and that it’s symbiotic with each element and that we can plan out resources to make the improvements and updates that the community wants.”

Upgrades include resurfacing the tennis courts, making playground improvements and potentially adding a space for dogs to be off leash.

Staff members were directed to find a playground inspector to evaluate the city’s play equipment for inclusivity, Americans with Disabilities Act compliance and overall safety. Howe said the inspector also will look at the structure’s life expectancy, which will help with future budgeting.

Justice emphasized the importance of adding adaptive play elements. For example, last year the city added an adaptive swing to each of its playgrounds and replaced broken items.

“This is a super basic improvement to make sure our playgrounds are inclusive for everybody,” Justice said. “Now let’s move forward with evaluating all the playgrounds. What is their current health? What do we need to do, when does that need to happen? Let’s put a plan in place so that we can start making improvements to the playgrounds on a schedule and that we can plan for.”

City staff will also work on a Bayfront master plan review. Howe said the review needs to look at all the ideas and projects in the Bayfront plan and inventory if they were ever addressed, left in limbo or completed.

“That’s the problem with having a master plan that was done so long ago,” Howe said. “You need to make sure it is still relevant to current practices.”

The Bayfront plan was originally adopted in 1978. While there have been amendments to the plan since then, Justice said it became clear that it needed an update in order to determine if it still meets community needs. It also needs to be publicly accessible.

The commission decided to create a committee to engage residents in the process, and directed staff to consolidate the master plan, and its amendments, into a new document.

The potential to improve Miller Grove to use as an educational tool also was discussed as a short-term project.

“Essentially we’ve got a lot of opportunities to engage the beautification brigade and see whether there’s something that might be a project that’s more in connection with them because there’s a difference between an intended open space and a park that’s supposed to be maintained for use,” Howe said.

A long-term project discussed at the meeting was the possibility of a golf course clubhouse. Justice said plans are essential to securing funding and grants.

“When you have a plan in place, it makes implementation much easier,” Justice said.

Commissioners Tara Huffman and Naomi Jane Gray were absent from the meeting.